Editor:
Watch your wallets, folks, your county government is again making a sneak attack on them. You think your taxes can be increased only by your vote at the ballot box, right? Wrong! Your county commissioners are, as I write, among that denizen of thieves called the state legislature lobbying for the right to elevate your taxes without asking you. And they are being careful not to mention they are doing it. This board of commissioners is like the past several: They want your money and don't care how they get it. Are you happy to let them take it?
In this day of government growing wildly wider, entrepreneurs of all shapes and sizes being squeezed by the mighty hand of raw political power, of government-of-the-people becoming government-over-the-people, we're getting to see things we never ever thought we'd see in America: Financial crashes, our central bank printing trillions of dollars, depressions, nationalizations, socialism, congress redistributing our taxes to their favorite charities. Things so preposterous, absurd, imbecilic, things that took place over and over again in third world countries, in South America, Southeast Asia, Africa, in those regions that submitted to communist rule. But not here.
Just like any third world country of old, our very own Congress is gradually stripping us of our savings, our jobs, our livelihood, and our ability to purchase the necessities of life, let alone any luxuries.
Not to be outdone, our state legislature is desperately searching for ways to keep overpaid government workers from having to give up any of the lush compensation increases they accumulated starting with Gov. Kenny Guinn's gigantic expansion of government in 2003.
With such examples, it probably shouldn't be a surprise that our local politicos are actively campaigning in Carson City literally behind our backs to get the legislature to add some dollars to your property taxes and sales taxes. Without you even knowing about it. They could call some town hall meetings and explain why they need the money, they could authorize a professional poll to see what you think of it. They could write in The Record-Courier. They don't and won't. Worse yet, your Assemblyman James Settelmeyer is helping them.
One bill your commissioners are trying to sneak through the legislature is a several-county health care organization with authority to impose property and sales taxes without your vote. The state already provides those services. Local power mongers want it transferred to a regional authority. They'd run it better. Sure. With more tax.
Another is a new authority to hit you with increases to property tax "for emergency only."
Sure. Douglas had some discretionary property tax until two years ago. They used it when they didn't begin to need it. Now they do, so they want more. Typical government.
Call Commissioners McDermid, Lynn, Olson, Johnson, and Brady, tell them if you want more government.
Jack Van Dien
Gardnerville
